Experience of partial oesophagectomy in surgical treatment of lower and middle thoracic oesophageal cancer. From a follow-up of 366 cases.

Since carcinoma of the oesophagus is considered to be frequently multicentric, total oesophagectomy appears the only radical therapeutical approach. A follow-up of 366 patients who underwent partial oesophagectomy shows that this procedure can be curative as well as palliative and is sometimes the only procedure possible with a reasonable mortality. These patients had an oesophageal carcinoma located between the cardia and the level of the aortic arch (60.5% squamous, 37% adenocarcinoma). Of these, 22% were over 70 years of age. The surgical route was a left thoracotomy in 280 cases (with anastomosis below or above the aortic arch) or a laparotomy and right thoracotomy in 86 cases. The oesophagus was transected as high as possible and replaced by an isoperistaltic tube fashioned from the greater curvature of the stomach. Mediastinal tissues and the lesser curvature with their lymph nodes were removed. The overall operative mortality was 7% (4% in patients less than 70 and 15% over 70). Very few anastomotic fistulae were observed (6 cases) but they were always severe (6 deaths). The middle and long term results show acceptable functional sequelae and a good survival quality. The survival is 57% at 1 year, 30% at 3 years and 23% at 5 years (27% when the excision appeared curative). There was no significant difference in survival for patients whose cancer was in the mid-oesophagus compared to the lower oesophagus. There was no difference in survival in the cell type squamous or adenocarcinoma. Death was mainly due to metastatic lesions and mediastinal lymphatic recurrence.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)